In competitive sport fishing, such as the ever-popular bass tournaments, it is common for two or more anglers to compete from a single boat, each accompanied by five or ten ready-to-use fishing poles. As is known, the need to avoid having gear adrift in the boat typically results in the poles being stowed in a long pole locker, in which there is significant likelihood that the snap leaders, lures, hooks, eyelets and line of one pole will entangle those of another pole. Although this problem has been recognized, and solutions therefor alleged to have been provided (such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,723,482; 3,972,144; 4,530,178; and 5,277,306), there still is not a widely-accepted fishing rod sleeve which satisfies the needs of anglers that desire to quickly switch the pole in use during competition.
There are a number of reasons to explain why prior fishing rod casing proposals have not satisfied this particular need. Almost all of the fishing rod cases have been designed as protective cases for shipping, carrying, and storage, rather than for preventing entanglement while in a rapid-use situation.
Some of the prior cases are specifically designed for use with rods which are broken down into three or more pieces, such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 679,442; 764,398; and 3,131,503. These, of course, are useless during competitive fishing.
Others are designed to completely enclose an assembled fishing rod/reel combination, which may be rigged and ready to use, with flaps and draw strings (U.S. Pat. No. 3,972,144) or Velcro (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,530,178; 5,277,306), with a zippered pouch (U.S. Pat. No. 2,723,482) or with a reel box having a closure lid (U.S. Pat. No. 5,046,279). Closing and unclosing these is antagonistic to the purpose of quickly switching rods during competition. If the closures were left open, they would unduly aggravate the entanglement of one rod and its open case with another rod having an open case, in an obvious way. Since protection of the rod and reel and coverage of the reel are wholly unnecessary in fishing competition, the loss of the desired characteristics of speed in use and lack of entanglement is unwarranted.
Some of the prior cases are made of conformable, expandable mesh, the shape of which conforms to the rod and its protuberances, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,222,193 and 4,916,852. This makes it very hard to get the rod into the case, and more particularly, to extract the rod from the case, quickly, during the excitement of competition. Additionally, the use of mesh promotes entanglement between the case and the rod's own rigging, as well as with the rigging on adjacent rods. This fact is brought out in U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,306 wherein an auxiliary purse is utilized to encase the hook of a pole prior to insertion of the pole into a mesh case.
Many of the prior cases have various accessories that constitute protrusions and protuberances which enhance the opportunity for entanglement, among other like protuberances and protrusions, or with other rigging. For instance, the cases of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,222,193 and 5,277,306 have rings at their tip ends with which the protrusions of an adjacent pole could entangle. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,530,178 and 5,277,306 suggest a carrying handle, midway along the case; this clearly could result in entanglement. And, the case of U.S. Pat. No. 5,293,711 has all sorts of accessories hanging all over it, all of which contribute to the likelihood of entanglement.